Janetta's Top 5 for Friday

Janetta is just one of the fantastic volunteers who help us keep Rodney Libraries running smoothly. Her literary claim to fame is that she once went on a date with Wilbur Smith but that is part of her history from a previous life in South Africa. She has helped me out on with the Top 5 on Friday today and as you will see truly reads around the world.

1. The Help by Kathryn Stockett. A "gripping" tale of America's south and the search for black equality in the 1960's. Limited and persecuted by racial divides in 1962 Jackson, Mississippi, three women, including an African-American maid, her sassy and chronically unemployed friend, and a recently graduated white woman, team up for a clandestine project.

2. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski. Fantastic read. "One of those books that stick in your mind". A tale reminiscent of "Hamlet" that also celebrates the alliance between humans and dogs follows speech-disabled Wisconsin youth Edgar, who bonds with three yearling canines and struggles to prove that his sinister uncle is responsible for his father's death.

3. Eaarth: Making a life on a tough new planet by Bill McKibben. This non-fiction book is described by Janetta as "quite terrifying and thought provoking". McKibben's earliest warnings about global warming went largely unheeded. In this book, he argues that we can meet the challenges of a new "Eaarth"--still recognizable but suddenly and violently out of balance

4. The Road Home by Rose Tremain. Janetta travels to Europe with this 2008 Orange Book award winner. Lev is on his way to Britain to seek work, so that he can send money back to Eastern Europe to support his mother and little daughter but he finds himself struggling with the mysterious rituals of 'Englishness', and the fashions and fads of the London scene.

5. Animal Vegetable Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. A different way of looking at food. "Part memoir, part journalistic investigation, this book (released May 2007) tells the story of how our family was changed by one year of deliberately eating food produced in the place where we live..."

Thanks Janetta. Your selection shows that the world comes home when you read a book.

Library events in August

There are plenty of things happening in Rodney Libraries during August. Here is a taste.

Friday 5th August: Starfish Magic present their Pied Popstar Workshop and Show at Mahurangi East Library starting at 3.45pm

Tuesday 10th August: Book Club at Mahurangi East Library from 2 - 4 pm. This book club runs on the second Tuesday of every month. Talk to Rosemary for further details.

Friday 13th August: Wellsford Library hosts their regular book club at 10am. Later on in the afternoon it is their turn to host Starfish Magic with the Pied Popstar Workshop (at the Wellsford Community Centre).

Friday 20th August: Starfish Magic head west, this time visiting the Kumeu Library.

Saturday 21st August: As part of the annual Storylines Festival, Whangaparaoa are hosting two workshops. First up from 12:30pm – 2:00pm, Lorraine Orman runs a writing workshop "Creating characters". Learn how to make your characters jump off the page. Then from 2:30pm – 4:00pm Fraser Williamson will run something for the artists - Bring It To Life Will Ya! Illustrating children's books for publishing. From a script, complete a character study, learn about layouts and put together a rough draft of book illustrations. There is a cost of $15 for each of these workshops.

As well as that all our regular storytimes, rhymetimes and Wriggle and Rhymes continue. For full details of whats on and where, check out our Library Events calendar on the Rodney District Website.

Rodney "Poetry Aloud" Winners

Rodney Libraries National Poetry Day ‘Poetry Aloud’ competition winners have been announced for 2010.

James Logue of Tomarata School was the overall winner. Alex de Beer of Red Beach School and Regan James from Helensville were both placed second. James won an 4 Gigabyte video MP3 Player and Alex and Regan both received a 4 Gigabyte MP3 Player.

The competition was a Rodney Libraries initiative as part of the build up to National Poetry Day, which is celebrated on 30 July.

National poetry day has been marked for a number of years. Two years ago Rodney Libraries decided to embrace the new technology now available to local residents through public access computers within libraries and launch a ‘Podcast Your Poetry’ competition.

The competition was a way to bring the objective of ational poetry day, ‘Poetry shouldn't stay on the page - it needs to be shared and read aloud,’ to life within Rodney. Podcasting gives children and teens the opportunity to share their creativity with others around Rodney District and New Zealand.

The competition ran from 1 – 30 June. 75 entries were received in this year’s competition, which was open to children in years 4 to 13.

“The number of classrooms entering was great to see,” says Rachel Fisher of Helensville Library who was the National Poetry Day Poetry Aloud Co-ordinator. “Tomarata School have always been a big supporter of this competition but this year has seen other schools come on board such as Red Beach School. We are pleased to be able to offer them a competition which fits in with their school curricula.”

Pauline Mee, a Helensville poet who judged the competition commented that, “the poetry and prose was full of beautifully descriptive use of imagery and evocative story telling. It was thoroughly enjoyable to listen to everybody’s work.”

Ngä Kupu Ora Mäori Book Awards

Winners of the University's second annual Ngä Kupu Ora Mäori Book Awards have been decided by public vote and include a Massey PhD candidate, a internationally-renowned author and a book commemorating the Taranaki land wars.

Voting in the awards, held to coincide with Mäori Language Week, closed last night and attracted more than double the number of votes as last year.

Awards organiser University Kaihautü Mäori (Mäori Library Services Manager) Spencer Lilley says the idea for book awards to recognise and celebrate Mäori literature was a result of other major book awards failing to do so.

“It’s heartening to see the growing interest and the continuing high calibre of finalists, Mr Lilley says. “Although there were fewer categories then the six included at the inaugural awards last year it was pleasing to see that voting figures more than doubled.”

Books on Mäori topics published between June last year and May 30 were selected as finalists in four categories: art, architecture and design; biography; history; and te reo Mäori.

Massey PhD candidate and graduate Julie Paama-Pengelley is the winner of the award for Art, Architecture and Design for her book Mäori Art and Design: Weaving painting, carving and architechture, which traces the origins and evolution of art and design in historic Mäori culture.

Internationally-acclaimed fiction writer Patricia Grace took out the biography award for her book Ned and Katina, the love story between Ned Nathan, a soldier in the 28th Mäori Battalion solider, and his wife Katina, whom he met in Crete in 1941.

Two of the winning books, the history and te reo Mäori award winners, were published by Massey alumni Robyn and Brian Bargh of Huia Publishers in Wellington.

The history award was won by Contested Ground: Te Whenua i Tohea, The Taranaki Land Wars 1860-1881 edited by Kelvin Day and published to coincide with an exhibition commemorating the 150th anniversary of the outbreak of the wars.

The te reo Mäori award was won by People of the Land: Images and Mäori Proverbs of Aotearoa New Zealand written by Sir Hirini Moko Mead and Lady June Te Rina Mead. The book contains pepehä and imagery and is aimed at those wishing to gain an insight into Mäori wisdom and values.

2010 Man Booker Longlist

It is a baker's dozen that was announced by the Man Booker Judges last week as their longlist for the 2010 award.

A total of 138 books, 14 of which were called in by the judges, were considered for the ‘Man Booker Dozen' longlist of 13 books.

Peter Carey - Parrot and Olivier in America (Faber and Faber)
Emma Donoghue - Room (Pan MacMillan - Picador)
Helen Dunmore - The Betrayal (Penguin - Fig Tree)
Damon Galgut - In a Strange Room (Grove Atlantic - Atlantic Books)
Howard Jacobson - The Finkler Question (Bloomsbury)
Andrea Levy - The Long Song (Headline Publishing Group - Headline Review)
Tom McCarthy - C (Random House - Jonathan Cape)
David Mitchell - The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet (Hodder & Stoughton - Sceptre)
Lisa Moore - February (Random House - Chatto & Windus)
Paul Murray - Skippy Dies (Penguin - Hamish Hamilton)
Rose Tremain - Trespass (Random House - Chatto & Windus)
Christos Tsiolkas - The Slap (Grove Atlantic - Tuskar Rock)
Alan Warner - The Stars in the Bright Sky (Random House - Jonathan Cape)

This list will be narrowed down on 7 September and the winner of the Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2010 will be revealed on 12 October.

For more information visit the Man Booker website